The Sega Dreamcast Came Out 14 Years Ago Today

Well, now I feel old. On September 9th, 1999 the awesome and soon to be doomed Sega Dreamcast came out in the US. Back then I was in 8th grade and I saved up money from my crappy after school job to buy one. I have a funny history with the Dreamcast, and hearing about the anniversary got me thinking about it again.

Seeing Sonic Adventure on display at Toys R Us sold me on the Dreamcast, and even sold my parents enough to let me spend my money on it. The funny thing is though, living in a small town with only a Walmart to buy games and consoles, by the time I had my money saved they were all out of Sonic Adventure. I was distraught, but there was no way I was leaving the store without a game to play, so I blindly bought Power Stone. I had no idea what the game was and it was not the type of game I would normally buy, but I was desperate.

Luckily, I ended up loving that game. The kicker? To this day, I have still not played Sonic Adventure. I loved my Dreamcast, but for some reason I never got around to playing it’s flagship game. Some of my favorite games were Toy Commander, Crazy Taxi, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, some football game (I went through a brief sports phase in middle school), Shenmue, and of course Seaman.

I don’t remember how long I owned my first Dreamcast, but eventually I sold it or traded it in, probably for more video games. A few years later when I was in my first college attempt, I bought one used at a game store and enjoyed the hell out of it all over again. But, my history as a serial console-seller caught up with me and I got ride of it again. I don’t know what is wrong with me.

Now I want one again but I’m trying to resist. I’m planning on building a gaming PC instead of buying into the next gen consoles this generation, and I’m hoping I can emulate my favorite Dreamcast games at that point. It’s hard to resist jumping on ebay and buying a bunch o Dreamcast stuff again though.

Who else was a Dreamcast fan? Sound off with your favorite games or memories!

Hardcore Dreamcast fan here, in fact I was always in the Sega camp as a kid during the “Sega Gensis vs. Super Nintendo” arguments. I think part of it was just going against the grain a bit. Everyone LOOOOVED Nintendo but Sega was the underdog so that always appealed. I think the system won me over with its design and Shenmue. Shenmue sort of began the “open world” chapter of gaming.

I still have my beloved original Dreamcast with transparent blue controller.

Riotgrrrl003

I actually never had a dreamcast growing up, I was a Nintendo kid. But when I would hunt for my NES and SNES games at flea markets I would always run into dreamcasts. People selling them for as low as $1, but no games… I decided to buy one, I mean who can pass it up for $1?! And so my hunt for DC games began and I love the console and it’s library of games, I’m still building up my DC library little by little but the games feel as if I grew up playing them, they re so great!

http://tophatsasquatch.com/ Tommy Day

That’s awesome! I feel so stupid when it comes to Dreamcasts, because I’ve literally owned 3 but have gotten rid of them each time. Next time I find one, I’m keeping it forever.